Chapter 275: 218, Major Social Death Scene (Requesting Guaranteed Monthly Votes)

“`

Qing Chen thought to himself, are there really people within the conglomerate who want nothing to do with worldly affairs?

Although there was no need for the person in question to lie to a prospective partner, he still had his doubts.

At this moment, the woman behind the bar had stopped everything she was doing and was staring intently over here, ready to act in case Qing Shi encountered any trouble.

Qing Chen then asked, “So, who do you think has the biggest chance of winning the Shadow conflict this time?”

“Qing Wen and Qing Zhong,” the twin-tailed girl pondered and smiled, “Everyone seems to favor them now. Qing Yuan, having not obtained a Taboo, was forced to choose to support Qing Zhong in the second round. Qing Xing also failed to get a Taboo, so the youngest, Qing Yi, sided with Qing Wen. Currently, only I and Qing Wu have yet to decide, and Qing Wu seems to still have ambitions.”

A lightbulb went off in Qing Chen’s mind. It turns out that several candidates had already started picking sides.

Qing Wen was from Qing’s main house and Qing Zhong from the second. It looked like they were the popular candidates.

Moreover, this revealed a critical piece of information: neither Qing Yuan nor Qing Xing had managed to obtain a Taboo in the first round, so in the second round, they could only be vassals to others!

But he heard Qing Shi continue to laugh and say, “However, the current alliances might not be genuine. For example, Qing Yuan has always been ambitious. Perhaps he’s pretending he didn’t get a Taboo and is using Qing Zhong as a shield. That’s what my father told me.”

Indeed, in this Shadow conflict, it seemed no one would show their true colors until the very last moment.

Because those who lived to see the second round were no easy targets.

Qing Shi might not be as straightforward as she claimed to be.

The girl had freely shared a lot of information, possibly without considering that the person sitting across from her could be another Shadow Candidate.

Or perhaps, Qing Shi had always intended to use him? Qing Chen became vigilant.

“You’re just a young girl involved in this kind of Shadow conflict, it must be pretty tough, right?” Qing Chen asked nonchalantly.

“It’s not too bad,” Qing Shi said with a sweet smile, “Since everyone knows I don’t want to contend, they haven’t really made things difficult for me. Their attention is mainly on Qing Wen and Qing Zhong, and also Qing Wu. Oh, let me tell you something the media out there doesn’t know – Qing Wen actually has two Taboos on him, which is more than the rest of us.”

“Is someone helping him cheat?” Qing Chen asked curiously, “The media says Shadow Candidates are not allowed to carry Taboos into the competition, that they have to acquire them through tasks, right?”

So, Time Traveler was referring to Qing Wen when he said someone among the candidates had two Taboos!

Qing Chen suddenly became interested in Qing Wen.

Very interested.

Qing Shi explained, “It’s not that someone is helping Qing Wen cheat. Instead, the youngest, Qing Yi, feeling incapable of competing for the Shadow, gave his acquired Taboo to Qing Wen in exchange for his protection. The Taboo that Qing Yi gave him was the ACE-090 ‘Eternal Brooch,’ which is said to have the power to prolong life if plunged into the body at the brink of death.”

Qing Chen thought these Shadow Candidate maneuvers were really quite numerous, so much so that they could even give Taboos to others.

But Qing Yi was also no simple character, was he? Giving his Taboo to Qing Wen, then letting others know its function, so everyone could guard against Qing Wen’s trump card?

Regardless of whether today’s meet-up was successful, at the very least, Qing Chen had gathered a lot of useful information from Qing Shi, much more detailed than what Time Traveler had provided.

Only at this moment did he really feel like he was part of the Shadow conflict.

Candidates without any background could only extract information from others.

However, Qing Chen didn’t want to show too much interest in the Shadow conflict on this first exchange.

He smiled and said, “Let’s not talk about such depressing matters. It’s such a downer. Let’s talk about poetry instead! Do you remember any of the poems I’ve written?”

Previously, he had asked Yi to bring out his poetry for him to see, but Yi refused.

Now, at least let Qing Shi recite a few lines, so that Qing Chen could gauge the level of Yi’s poetic talent and see the literary creation capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Qing Shi’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Qing Chen, “Of course I remember, I can recite every single one of your poems. Let me recite it for you…”

“Beep beep beep beep beep!”

The phone that Qing Chen had placed on the table suddenly went off, and he picked it up with a puzzled look, only to find that there was no apparent reason for the alert.

“What’s wrong?” Qing Shi asked curiously.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing,” Qing Chen smiled, “Maybe the phone is broken. You go on.”

“Well, I love your poem ‘Great Snow.’ Let me recite it now,” Qing Shi said with a smile.

“Beep beep beep beep beep beep!”

Qing Chen’s phone went off again with a piercing noise, so loud that the woman at the bar hurried over, her right hand on her holster, eyes fixed on him like a hungry wolf.

If Qing Chen made any wrong move, the woman was ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

A flurry of thoughts raced through Qing Chen’s mind. He had previously suspected that each Shadow Candidate would have a C-Class Expert to escort them, and this woman must be Qing Shi’s C-Class Expert.

“This phone has been dropped a couple of times before, so it often goes off for no reason,” he explained, though he was quite clear on the real reason the phone was making noise—it was Yi trying to prevent Qing Shi from reciting the poem, afraid of social death!

Qing Chen smirked to himself, so this was what Yi was afraid of!

The woman posing as a waitress approached him and whispered to Qing Shi, “Miss, time is up. You can’t chat any longer. It’s already a violation for you to meet with outsiders privately. Please don’t make this harder for us.”

“All right,” Qing Shi sighed. She turned to Qing Chen, “Sorry, I have to go now, but I’ll be staying in City 18 for a while longer. We should be able to meet again.”

“Hmm.”

Qing Shi suddenly asked shyly, “What do you think of me?”

“`

“Very good,” Qing Chen replied vaguely.

“Then, can you write me a poem? You’ve said before that you can write poems quickly, that it only takes a minute to come up with one,” Qing Shi looked at Qing Chen expectantly.

Damn it!

Qing Chen was startled inwardly, had Qing Yi really blown such big talk?

He pretended to look calmly at his phone, only to find that the screen displayed two words from Yi: Damn it.

It seemed that even Yi hadn’t expected Qing Shi to suddenly ask for a poem.

Honestly, it was indeed very simple for artificial intelligence to whip up a poem on the spot.

But it didn’t want Qing Chen to see the poems it wrote!

That’d be social suicide!

Yi hesitated and then sent a message to Qing Chen: Why don’t you just make up a poem for her?

Qing Chen said to Qing Shi calmly, “Next time for sure.”

‘Cute and adorable’ didn’t send a poem, what’s it got to do with Qing Chen?

Qing Shi was a bit disappointed, “Okay, then you promise me you’ll write one for me next time.”

The female bodyguard took Qing Shi away, leaving Qing Chen sitting exhausted in the booth, his head throbbing in pain.

It wasn’t until then that Yi sent a message: “You did a very poor job this time around. You didn’t do what the employer asked, so the employer is very dissatisfied! And why didn’t you write her a poem at the end?”

Qing Chen got into the hover car, his face dark, and said, “What’s there to be unsatisfied about? I’m not a wandering poet, I can’t write poetry!”

“With so many poems from the Outer World, and your Memory Power so good, just pick any poem and give it to her!” Yi said.

“No, I can’t expose my Time Traveler identity because of a lousy poem,” Qing Chen said. “Do you still want me to help you make your appearance next time? Stop talking nonsense. It’s enough that Qing Shi believes there’s someone like you in reality. Isn’t that what we originally agreed on? You are the one who added tasks on the fly!”

“Fine, that’s reasonable,” Yi said. “The next appearance is already scheduled in three days. Complete the appearance in three days, and I’ll give you Liu Dezhu’s crime-washing data and the Outer World concealment program.”

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, “Is your poetry really that embarrassing?”

“Where do you want to go now?” Yi asked.

“What exactly is the content of ‘Great Snow’?”

“How about I take you to Begonia Boxing Gym to watch boxing?”

“How many poems have you written in total?”

“Are you done yet?!”

…

…

Meanwhile, in Qing’s Family’s black hover car, the middle-aged woman sat across from Qing Shi and said calmly, “Miss, that young man doesn’t seem like a so-called collaborator. I feel you are hiding something.”

“He is a collaborator,” Qing Shi said weakly.

“I need to report today’s itinerary to your father and verify the other party’s identity. Miss, how did you get to know him?” the middle-aged woman asked.

Qing Shi got anxious, clutching the ends of her long twin ponytails, “If you’re going to be like this, then I announce right now that I’m dropping out of the Shadow Contest. It’s just a small thing, why make such a fuss about it.”

Seeing her mention dropping out of the Shadow Contest, the middle-aged woman’s demeanor softened a bit, “Miss, we’re not saying we must win this Shadow Contest, your father is worried about you getting hurt in the contest.”

Qing Shi pondered for a moment and then said, “Father has gone to such lengths to secure the Taboo for me in the first round, so he’s not as detached from worldly affairs as he claims, is he? Otherwise, what’s he after? If he really cared about my safety, he’d have let me declare my withdrawal by now. So please don’t interfere with even the smallest matter; otherwise, I’ll announce my withdrawal from the Shadow Contest.”

“I’m also concerned about your safety,” the middle-aged woman sighed. “The other candidates are all ruthless, and what if they send someone to approach you deliberately? It can’t be helped.”

“Don’t worry, this person won’t harm me!” Qing Shi said confidently. “Although I have my doubts about his identity, I know he won’t harm me.”

The middle-aged woman was taken aback; she didn’t understand why Qing Shi was so certain.

“Where are we going next, and what are we doing?” Qing Shi asked.

The middle-aged woman glanced at the schedule: “We have arranged a private meeting with Miss Li Yinuo at the Begonia Boxing Gym tonight. According to the plan, you are to select her as your support. Currently, among Li’s Third Generation, she has shown relatively upright character, and collaborating with her seems more reliable. Then there’s Li Tongyun who is also pretty good, but Li Tongyun is too young.”

Qing Shi was puzzled, “Li Yinuo is the eldest daughter of Li’s Third Generation, would someone of her status be willing to cooperate with someone as insignificant as me?”

“She contacted us first.”

…

…

Asking for monthly votes!!! Please, bosses, bless me with your monthly votes!

Thank you to Mù Chéng Nán i and Little Cow on the Slope for becoming new allies of this book. Early New Year greetings to the two bosses!

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